Stunning news this morning that Gene Upshaw, the head of the NFL Players Association has died at the age of 63.  There were no reports of his illness – which has now been reported as pancreatic cancer – and thus the stop-in-your-tracks nature of the story.

Gene has been a voice and presence for NFL players for decades.  He was a seminal presence in the labor history of the NFL.   He has been criticized for his cozy relationship with former Commissioner Tagliabue and the fact that NFL players do not have guaranteed contracts.  That said, free agency in the NFL would not exist but for Gene Upshaw.  More importantly, the present collective bargaining agreement that we are living under today has been the source of constant complaint and dissatisfaction by the owners, a testament to the job Gene did.

This deal, negotiated by Upshaw and his staff in March of 2006, is the best deal NFL players have ever had.  They receive 59.5% of Total Football Revenues (TFR), not the Designated Gross Revenues (DGR) that were calculated under the previous agreement.  DGR primarily included broadcast and ticket revenue; TFR includes all football revenues.  This change of acronyms has brought NFL players tremendous wealth compared to where they once were.

The last time I saw Gene in Green Bay he sat in my office at Lambeau Field and noticed all the activity in the Atrium below us – stadium tours, Pro Shop business, Hall of Fame tours, restaurants, and so on – and shook his head.  These were revenues that the players should be getting, he said with some purpose.  He also used our public financial records – the only team required to show its assets and liabilities is the smallest market in football by a long shot – to the union’s benefit.  I explained that the Packers are a unique team with an exceptional fan base, but he used what he needed to use.

The ink was barely dry on the March 2006 deal when owners were already complaining about it.  The voices in the wilderness that dissented from the vote – Ralph Wilson of the Bills and Mike Brown of the Bengals – started to make sense to the other owners.

On that deal, Gene appeared to do a masterful job of having a deadline that moved a couple of times and then became hard as he boarded a flight to Hawaii for the NFLPA meetings.  With the ongoing revenue-sharing issue taking much of the attention of the owners at that meeting in Dallas, the deal with the NFLPA slid through without the necessary attention it needed.  When I asked our president, Bob Harlan, about the meeting, he said the player side of things was barely discussed.  Masterful, I thought, on the part of Upshaw.

NFL players do not receive the salaries or the guarantees of MLB or the NBA.  That is undisputed.  They also risk more bodily harm.  However, there are far, far more of them than in those other two sports and they play a fraction of the games.  There are arguments back and forth on this, but NFL players are paid as well as they have ever been due to Gene.

There will be plenty of intrigue about who will lead the union in this important time.  Even with the knowledge of his grave disease, Gene had stoically promised that he would be that person.  That bravado and presence, as everything about Gene, will be missed.  Rest in peace, my friend.